The gauntlet has been thrown down to Paris Saint-Germain. Ahead of their trip to Marseille’s Stade Velodrome on Sunday, traditionally the most hostile of all their away trips, they find themselves trailing Monaco by six points in Ligue 1. Any slip now could be vital.
Amid their myriad of big-money signings, they will look to Edinson Cavani, in particular, to guide them past their great rivals at the weekend.
In recent seasons they have leaned on Zlatan Ibrahimovic to star against OM. The Swede scored 11 times in just 10 outings against Marseille, and while he had the chance to terrorise his favourite opponents Saint-Etienne in the Europa League, the Manchester United striker is, thankfully for PSG’s rivals, a distant memory in Ligue 1.
Cavani, signed for a massive €64 million from Napoli in 2013, has been the player to replace him at the forefront of the attack, and like his predecessor, has dominated the scoring charts, revelling in his favourite role.
“This is where I would have liked to be aligned as soon as I arrived in Paris,” he admitted in an interview with UEFA recently.
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After being peripheral in Laurent Blanc’s system last season, the 30-year-old Uruguay international star has been placed front and centre under Unai Emery, and while he was wasteful earlier in the season, he has become increasingly efficient with time. Indeed, with 25 Ligue 1 goals, he has more than three times as many strikes as any other PSG player.
While the capital side do have other players in form going into Sunday’s big match, none will be the subject of quite so much scrutiny by the home defence as Cavani. Against Marseille, though, he is not a patch on Ibra.
From eight previous encounters against the Provence giants, the striker has notched only three goals. Even when OM were in a state of disarray shortly after Rudi Garcia took charge of them earlier this season, he failed to make an impression, misfiring in a scoreless draw.
If PSG are to claim the points at the Velodrome – and stay within sight of leaders Monaco – they need their key figure to shine.
Ahead of the encounter, he has received support from a surprising source: former Marseille and AC Milan striker Jean-Pierre Papin, winner of the Ballon d’Or in 1991.
“I’m absolutely a fan of Cavani,” he told PSG’s official website. “He was a born attacker, a true No. 9. I’m delighted with the season he has played and I’m confident that he can break records.”
Regardless of how well ‘El Matador’ is doing this term, he has some way to go to match Ibrahimovic’s tally of 38 goals from last term. Zlatan achieved that tally in only 31 league outings, and while Cavani is still floating around the goal-per-game mark, he simply does not have the tools to be as prolific as the Swede.
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Nevertheless, his statistics are of rare quality. Excluding penalties, only international team-mate Luis Suarez and Gonzalo Higuain have better minutes-per-goal ratios than the PSG forward in league play this season, as he finds the net, on average, once every 27 touches – a far superior ratio than anyone else at the top level currently.
Those numbers speak volumes of two of the qualities that Cavani lists as his best – “anticipation” and “physical power”. However, it is arguably his intelligent movement that has carried him to such heights in his career – quite simply, no-one in the game today makes runs as cleverly as El Matador.
Doubts still linger over his ability to perform in the biggest games on a consistent basis, though. He does not pose the individual match-winning qualities of a figure like Ibrahimovic or Suarez; he requires others to be on song to give him the ball where he needs it – and even then there is no guarantee he will finish it off.
Replete with confidence at the moment, this is Cavani’s best spell in France – the first time that he has looked truly settled since moving to Paris. Personal problems away from the field, which dogged him when he initially moved from Napoli, appear to have been resolved, and he is now playing the starring role he has always desired.
Ibrahimovic famously said that he came to PSG “a king and left a legend” – if Cavani wants to truly follow in Zlatan’s footsteps, it is in games like Sunday’s that he must deliver.
